by Cory Franklin

July 23, 2023

Don’t worry, Carole King is still with us and going strong at age 81.  In fact, next Saturday, July 29, at Ravinia, there will be a specially curated orchestral arrangement of her music, along with that of Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon.

The reader reaction to my Burt Bacharach and Cynthia Weil pieces was so positive, I thought I would do a Carole King retrospective. Unlike the last two, these are not necessarily her best, but some of her good songs you may have never heard, didn’t know about, or didn’t know she wrote. Every one, and I tried to pick what I thought were the best versions, is a pleasure to listen to.

Carole King essentially had two careers. Her first was in the 1960s, primarily writing with her then-husband and co-writer, Gerry Goffin in New York as part of the Brill Building songwriters (though they were technically writing down the block from the Brill Building.) They were the most successful husband and wife songwriting team there, and her most memorable songs at that juncture were “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, “Up on the Roof” and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” When The Beatles took over rock and roll, songwriters began writing their own material and Goffin/King went out of fashion. The couple divorced in 1968 and went their own ways professionally.

Carole’s second career came in the early 1970s after she moved to California. She became a superstar. Her 1971 solo album, “Tapestry” topped the U.S. album chart for nearly four months and held the record for most weeks at #1 by a female artist for more than 20 years.  Her best songs in the 1970s include “You’ve Got a Friend”, “Jazzman”, and “It’s Too Late.”

The list of familiar songs she has written is too long to list, but the ones I have selected here are all from her 1960s New York phase, most of which she wrote in her early 20s. As I said, you may not be familiar with them, but I guarantee you will like each of them. (You might gain a new appreciation for some of the artists as well.) Here goes, I hope it expands your personal Carole King catalogue. I doubt whether you will hear more than one or two of these at Ravinia.

 

WHILE READING THIS ARTICLE, YOU MUST CLICK ON THE MUSICAL LINKS 

Don’t Ever Change (The Crickets 1962) (The Beatles 1963)

The song was intended for the Everly Brothers but was originally recorded by the Crickets, Buddy Holly’s back-up band. After Buddy Holly died, The Crickets reconstituted with some of the original members and some fill-ins including a young Glen Campbell on this record. The song was a top five in the UK, never did much in the US but in 1963, The Beatles covered it for Pop Goes the Beatles, Live at the BBC, six months before their Ed Sullivan debut in America. Beatle fans are familiar with the group’s cover of the Goffin/King song “Chains” but this one, with a superb duet between George Harrison and Paul McCartney, usually flies under the radar.

 

Crying in the Rain (The Everly Brothers 1962)

Peak Carole King and peak Everly Brothers. This fabulous song was a one-off collaboration between Carole King and Howard Greenfield, co-writer of the Bewitchedtheme. Listen to the great guitar simulation of rain at the end, something Carole King repeated in “It Might as Well Rain Until September” (below).  At the height of their career, the Everly Brothers joined the Marines, but unlike Elvis they never regained their same popularity after coming out of the military. They sang this song, their last top Ten hit, on The Ed Sullivan Show in their Marine uniforms with another Marine in the audience, John Glenn, who would make the first American orbital flight two days later.  My opinion: the Everly Brothers were the greatest rock and roll duo ever.

 

It Might As Well Rain Until September (Carole King 1962)

(Helen Shapiro 1963)

Remarkably, before Carole became a mega-star in the 1970s, this was the only Goffin/King song that she performed in the 1960s that made it on the pop charts. Her Brill Building mentor and producer Don Kirshner, “The Man with the Golden Ear”, thought her demo was good enough to release as a single and it was a modest mid-charter in the US, at the same time the Goffin/King “Locomotion”, sung by their babysitter Little Eva, was topping the charts. “It Might As Well Rain Until September” was  a top 5 hit in the UK, and The Beatles’ Liverpool colleague, Helen Shapiro, did a nice cover the next year. It repeats the musically simulated rain finale from “Crying in the Rain.”

 

I Can’t Stay Mad At You (Skeeter Davis 1963)

The first Goffin/King hit for a country music artist. In 1963, Skeeter Davis did one of the greatest country music crossover pop hits with “The End of the World” that remains an iconic song today. “I Can’t Stay Mad at You” was her follow-up, not as popular, but still as listenable as any Carole King song. It certainly helped that the great music producer (and legendary guitarist) Chet Atkins produced this one.  It wasn’t until the 1970s that most people caught on that Carole King could do songs for country performers.

 

This Little Girl (Dion 1963)

After leaving The Belmonts in the early Sixties, Dion had a couple of huge records on his own in 1961, “The Wanderer” and “Runaround Sue”. He had a number of lesser hits in 1963 including a #2 with “Ruby Baby”, a remake of The Drifters hit. “This Little Girl” penned by King and Goffin, came later in 1963 and never broke the top 20, but it was a great rock song with a fine internal rhyme at the end; it should have done much better.

 

Show Me, Girl  (Herman’s Hermits 1964)

You’ve probably never heard of this one because it was never released in the US. Herman’s Hermits, led by the wonderfully talented Peter Noone, did have one of their first hits with a Goffin/King song, “I’m Into Something Good”.  This song was just as good. Take a listen to vintage 1960s Carole King and a fine performance by the underrated Noone.

 

One Fine Day (The Chiffons 1963)

The New York-based Chiffons had a #5 hit with this great song that Carole King redid herself in 1980. They were one of the best girl groups of the early 1960s, left in the wake by Motown and the Supremes later in the decade. Their #1 song, “He’s So Fine”, also recorded in 1963 (not written by Goffin/King), was the subject of the famous plagiarism suit involving George Harrison and the song “My Sweet Lord.”

 

Oh No, Not My Baby (Maxine Brown 1964)

(Manfred Mann 1965)

The mark of a great song is that there are so many good versions, that it’s almost impossible to make a bad one. This is a perfect example. Maxine Brown did the original and established it as a slow song, almost a ballad. Paul Jones, one of the UK’s best rock/blues singers (he turned down an offer to lead the Rolling Stones before Mick Jagger accepted), took it up tempo a year later with Manfred Mann (you may know Paul Jones from the Manfred Mann version of “Doo Wah Diddy”) in what proved to be an artistic success but unfortunately a commercial failure. There are a number of other excellent versions of this song, most of them slow like Maxine Brown’s. I recommend those by Linda Ronstadt, David Cassidy, Merry Clayton (best known as the legendary backup singer on the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”) and one by Carole King herself.

 

Goin’ Back (Dusty Springfield 1966)

(The Byrds 1967)

(Nils Lofgren 1975)

Perhaps Carole King’s most underappreciated masterpiece is this song about loss of innocence, and the definitive version is by the incomparable Dusty Springfield. Carole was on record as saying this was the best version. Roger McGuinn’s beautiful 12-string and The Byrds’ vocals give the song a country flavor. The Byrds would soon move into country rock and this song was one of the influences. David Crosby refused to sing on this song, evidence that David didn’t always exhibit the best musical judgment. Before he joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Nils Lofgren did a solo piano jazz version of the song. The three different versions of Goin’ Back illustrate the versatility of Carole King.

 

Pleasant Valley Sunday (Carole King 1966)

(The Monkees 1967)

This is the one song on this list that most people can probably identify as a Carole King song. First, listen to Carole’s demo version of this song about the suburban New Jersey community she and Gerry Goffin moved to after their initial success. There is a hint of political leftism (Carole’s brand) in her takedown of suburbia, reminiscent of Malvina Reynolds’s “Little Boxes.”  Then listen to The Monkees version – they own this song. Ironically, the Monkees, who were savaged for not playing their own music, did play on this, their best song.  They softened the lyrics, but only slightly, to make it more of a tongue-in- cheek commentary on suburban conformity. Musically, they added a killer opening guitar riff borrowed from The Beatles, and the production, especially the closing section, is almost Beatlesque. The vocal by Mickey Dolenz, with help from Mike Nesmith, is note-perfect. The Monkees were not The Beatles, far from it, but this song could hold its own with just about anything in The Beatles’ catalogue.

There is a strong argument that Carole King is the greatest female songwriter America has ever produced. If you are in doubt, listen to the songs on this list, remembering all the other great music she wrote in the 1960s and 1970s. Try to get out to Ravinia to hear some of those songs. I think you will agree.

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About the author:

Cory Franklin, physician and writer is a frequent contributor to johnkassnews.com.

He was director of medical intensive care at Cook County Hospital in Chicago for more than 25 years. An editorial ng the pathologists who studied it intently but had no idea what body part it could be. This was before it was known as trolling.)

There is a lesson here. The next time someone tells you, with unmistakable conviction, that he believes in “the science,” gladly offer to discuss science with him over a sandwich. Give him a choice, chorizo or perhaps kosher salami. board contributor to the Chicago Tribune op-ed page, he writes freelance medical and non-medical articles. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Post, Guardian, Washington Post and has been excerpted in the New York Review of Books. Cory was also Harrison Ford’s technical adviser and one of the role models for the character Ford played in the 1993 movie, “The Fugitive.” His YouTube podcast “Rememberingthepassed” has received 900,000 hits to date. He published “Chicago Flashbulbs” in 2013, “Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases” in 2015, and most recently coauthored, A Guide to Writing College Admission Essays: Practical Advice for Students and Parents in 2021.